6:00 Hours: A Dystopian Novel by Chad Evercroft Read Free Book Online

said.
    Tim and Rachel each took an arm, pulling her up so her legs dangled in the water. Rachel held on to her while Tim examined her legs. The woman wore a loose T-shirt and khakis, now dark from the water. She winced as she shifted her weight on the kayak.
    “How long have you been here like this?” Rachel asked.
    “I don’t know,” the woman replied. “I came down after it flooded to try and get something, and slipped. I thought I might drown, I couldn’t get up the stairs, so I just held on here.”
    “Why didn’t you leave after the earthquake? Didn’t you hear the warnings?”
    “I’ve lived through other storms,” the woman said, her tone slightly annoyed.
    Tim glanced up at Rachel with a meaningful look, but said nothing. He rolled up the woman’s pant leg to look at the break. It was bad. The bone was almost poking through the skin right under her knee, and her skin was a troublingly pale-green color. Staying in the filthy water could not be good. It could be infected.
    “I’ve got some basic first aid,” Rachel said, unzipping her backpack.
    She gave the woman an antibiotic pill and Tim’s water.
    “Thank you,” the woman said.
    “Keep the water.”
    She drank the rest of it eagerly. It must have been a while since she had a drink.
    “What’s your name?” Tim asked.
    “Mary. Mary Pile.”
    “I’m Tim. That’s Rachel.”
    “Thank you so much,” Mary repeated, blinking rapidly. “I don’t know how long I would have lasted.”
    “You need a hospital,” Rachel said. “Professional help.”
    Tim and Rachel tried to maneuver the kayak so they could all fit in it, but it became too tippy to paddle. The kayak dipped too far and water spilled into the seats.
    “Whoa!” Tim whaled, touching his hands to the ceiling to steady himself. “This isn’t going to work.”
    “We can’t all go,” Rachel said, stating the obvious. “Tim, do you know this area at all?”
    “Yeah…”
    “Do you know where a hospital is?”
    Tim nodded.
    “That’s as good a place as any to go look for help. If the water is high there, it can’t be higher than the first floor.”
    Rachel unconsciously hugged her backpack. The woman, now straddling the kayak divider, turned her head to look back at Rachel.
    “I’ll stay here,” Rachel said. “You take her to the hospital.”
    “...Are you sure?” Tim asked.
    “What are our other options? We can’t wait. Her leg…” Rachel’s voice drifted off.
    Everyone knew Rachel was right. She would have to get out on the roof. They carefully made their way out the front door, holding on to the ceiling and the wall to balance. Outside, Rachel pulled herself up to the roof, grateful for the painful hours she had put in at the gym.
    “Take your trail mix,” Tim said.
    He took it out of his bag and handed it back to her. Their fingers brushed during the exchange and Tim smiled. He hadn’t smiled since they met; Rachel probably hadn’t either. She smiled back.
    “I’ll come back for you,” Tim assured her. “I’ll bring help.”
    “Ok,” Rachel said. “Thanks.”
    She sat with her knees to her chin as Tim paddled away with Mary. The neighborhood looked like Venice and Tim was a gondolier. He had just turned a corner and out of Rachel’s site when it began to rain harder yet again.
    Of course, Rachel thought bitterly. Because why the hell not .
    She rocked back and forth, alone again.
    Later, Rachel would guess that it was about a half hour between Tim leaving and when she started feeling the second earthquake. It came in short, smaller bursts, like the footsteps of a giant. At first, Rachel wasn’t sure what she was experiencing and just stared at the quavering surface of the water.
    What the…
    Then the roof began to shake. Rachel pressed her hands against the shingles to steady herself, but it hardly helped. She had never heard or seen footage of a earthquake in a flooded area. It was strange. The shaking stopped and Rachel relaxed. She shouldn’t